Onboard sound isn't recognized anymore (VPCSE13FX)

OK this is a really strange issue.
I bought this laptop Sony Vaio VPCSE13FX like a week ago from out of the country. It has Windows 7 64bit installed on it.

Was just working on the laptop doing normal stuff.
Wanted to turn the brightness down a bit, and tried the function+f keys, but for some reason it didn't work.
Then I tried to volume up/down, and it didn't work either.
So I said lets reboot. So I rebooted.
Next thing I see is that the sound icon at the bottom has a X on it.

I open it, and I see no devices found.
I open up the device manager, and the onboard Realtek sound card that used to be there, isn't.

Next thing I did is re-install the drivers. Didn't help.
Checked BIOS if there is something related to sound disabled - none.

At this point I began to worry.

Then I though maybe it's a virus.
I download an anti-virus, did a scan - nothing found.

Then I though maybe something damaged in windows, so I did a system restore to 1 day ago - same issue.
I also download ubuntu 11.10 live cd, booted, and again, the sound card isn't even there and there is no sound.

So that's the point where I'm stuck at this moment.
Any suggestions? Can't be the motherboard just f**ked up right? it's a week old, and the only thing not working is the sound, everything else works fine.

Any help would be appreciated.